Source: Mejor 1991

Mejor, Marek. Vasubandhuʼs Abhidharmakośa and the Commentaries Preserved in the Tanjur. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1991.

Assertions

Assertion Argument Place in source Search

In the Derge canon, we find the Chos mngon pa mdzod kyi bstan bcos kyi tshig le'ur byas pa'i rnam par bshad pa D 4091 [CXLI] (Commentary on the Verses of the Abhidharma Treasury). This work is sometimes treated—for example, in Lancaster's catalogue of the Taishō—as an equivalent to the 阿毘達磨藏顯宗論 T1563 (Treatise Illuminating the Tenets of the Abhidharma Treasury), Xuanzang’s translation of a treatise by Saṃghabhadra framed as a commentary on Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośabhāṣya. However, Mejor has found that D 4091 appears to be ‘a simple abridgement of the Abhidharmakośa, without polemics’. Based upon correspondences with a fragmentary Tibetan manuscript from Dunhuang (Stein No. 591), he identifies D 4091 as the *Abhidharmakośavṛttisūtrānurūpā. He summarizes: ‘It seems that we have here an example of an old, anonymous translation of an Indian text of a śāstra-commentary type, very early incorporated into the Tanjur and not subject to further revision or correction’. It is therefore fallacious to treat D 4091 as an equivalent to T1563.

Edit

Mejor 36-37
Brewster 171

 In the Derge canon, we find the Chos mngon pa mdzod kyi bstan bcos kyi tshig le'ur byas pa'i rnam par bshad pa D 4091 [CXLI] (Commentary on the Verses of the Abhidharma Treasury). This work is sometimes treated—for example, in Lancaster's catalogue of the Taisho—as an equivalent to the 阿毘達磨藏顯宗論 T1563 (Treatise Illuminating the Tenets of the Abhidharma Treasury), Xuanzang’s translation of a treatise by Samghabhadra framed as a commentary on Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakosabhasya. However, Mejor has found that D 4091 appears to be ‘a simple abridgement of the Abhidharmakosa, without polemics’. Based upon correspondences with a fragmentary Tibetan manuscript from Dunhuang (Stein No. 591), he identifies D 4091 as the *Abhidharmakosavrttisutranurupa. He summarizes: ‘It seems that we have here an example of an old, anonymous translation of an Indian text of a sastra-commentary type, very early incorporated into the Tanjur and not subject to further revision or correction’. It is therefore fallacious to treat D 4091 as an equivalent to T1563. T1563; 阿毘達磨藏顯宗論